Comments on: Google’s Knol – A Wikipedia Killer or a Blog Killer?

By: perde

perde — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 03:16:43 +0000

Google is in business of organising content and not creating. I guess with a hype of Google Knol, precious moments online are wasted in creating pages with faulty layouts and navigation. Advantages I see is, google will rank knols in search engines and maybe, we find some good content knols from US till more content is allowed.

By: Knol Today

Knol Today — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 17:58:55 +0000

Darren,

I started a blog on Google Knol to track how far it will go – as well as an effort to ride the knol wave :)

During my 2 weeks of blogging on knols, I’ve seen many spams in knols – affiliate links, wikipedia copy and paste (I can’t understand why people would do this), and self promotional contents.

Hopefully the commenting and star rating system will help people separate the good from the bad.

Cheers!

By: Schanizan

Schanizan — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 15:02:50 +0000

I really don’t think Knol can beat blogs. Both have their own purposes.

I had just submitted my first post to Google Knol.
It’s not related to any of my internet marketing works, but rather on my existing semiconductor profession. I use Knol to build a rapport on my professionalism by writing authoritative topics pertaining my semiconductor field, and share them with my clients. I could not use blog for this purpose, as it may not seem so professional in comparison to the hi-tech nature and conventionality of the field.

But on the other hand, I think it will be difficult to use Knol for my internet marketing works.
Firstly, in Knol it is hard to write an article with relaxed manner.
Secondly, as it is difficult to categorize posts and show it’s chronology in Knol.
Thirdly, I don’t see any ways we can put an opt-in option on Google Knols.

If Knol is going to kill anything, then I think it will be the article directories.

By: CMS Medical

CMS Medical — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 15:52:28 +0000

Knol might be more appropriate than Wikipedia, its possibly a better medium though I think it depends on what your goal is.
It won’t quite go head to head competition wise with Wikipedia. It seems it has a different objective in terms of authorship which pretty much makes the site much different than wikipedia.

By: ilaxi

ilaxi — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 12:00:29 +0000

When I made a squidoo page for my book Guardian of angels, I thought it was not much sense as I already had own sites and blogs and market places to sell. Earlier, I tried the wikipedia and I hate ending up there even through links coz it’s jerky with those removals and comments that do not allow to make your pages. I even got friends telling me to make pages for them at wikipedia due to their removals…and now, the Knol. I wrote a whole piece of Management article and only later to realize, the post went blank – it called for verification and for this, one got to be in US!!!

By: Sunil

Sunil — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 06:00:38 +0000

Google Knol, i really dont feel a serios effort from Google against Wikipedia. it’s more close to Blogger or Squidoo or hubpages. The only fear of Wikipedia is that Google may put Knol on top of Wikipedia’s millions of keywords.

Just after 3 days of Knol launch. The “Knol” keyword is showing knol webpage on top of Wikipedia. Before Wikipedia was coming on top of knol webpage for the same keyword.

http://www.dailytechnologytips.com/2008/07/google-knol-top-on-search-left.html

Let see how long Wikipedia keep his keywords top on Google.

By: Chuck

Chuck — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 09:48:14 +0000

I think it’s horrible. Now there will be these stupid Knol pages ranking high in Google like Wikipedia pages for good keywords and taking the spot from real websites people have put a lot of time/years into.

By: Wayne Tully

Wayne Tully — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 23:58:42 +0000

Any place online where you can gain a credible following is what it’s all about, although it might be widely understood that getting there first on certain topics might be the best way to attain expertise.

I already signed up with Knol and have yet to use it to my advantage….but use it I will, maybe as spotlight post articles that I could link to in my blogs!

By: Ginkgo100

Ginkgo100 — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 19:06:17 +0000

Wikipedia and Knol both publish user-created content, but that’s where the similarities end. Wikipedia is significant for what it is NOT, to wit, a sourced for original content. It’s a real encyclopedia, meaning it is a tertiary source, not a primary or secondary source. I wrote more here: http://roadtoblack.blogspot.com/2008/07/is-knol-wikipedia-killer.html

By: Mya

Mya — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 14:02:50 +0000

I dont see anyone knocking off wikipedia at anytime in the near future, for the simple fact that its platform is so large.

By: Michael | University Scholar

Michael | University Scholar — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 21:43:58 +0000

The Knoll will not kill blogs. And that is a fact. They are two different mediums.

If bloggers attempted to switch to Knol’s they will probably discover that, other than the few lucky ones, most bloggers would make a lower income.

You can’t sell your books, offer free things, offer your friendship.

Knols will have their place of course, but I believe many bloggers should avoid concerning too much about Knols. The more a blogger concerns about Knols the less he is concerned about his blog.

By: Tiffany

Tiffany — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 13:41:35 +0000

The interesting thing to me about Knol is the “expertise” part of the pitch… but then there’s the fact that as far as I can tell, there isn’t really going to be any fact-checking or vetting going on, other than traffic patterns, etc.

So it’s interesting to me that you bring up that Knol could be a blog killer.

If it is, does that mean bloggers in the know now should go ahead and create the authoritative Knol on their topic? Or would that just entrench the problem?

What’s your personal take?

By: Christian Cawley

Christian Cawley — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 10:42:17 +0000

I feel that knol can be a very useful tool, and while there are certain ethical issues it is certainly an opportunity to be investigated.

By: Phil Baumann

Phil Baumann — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 02:01:27 +0000

It might be a bit early to predict exactly how Knol will work out.

If it gets big, it could be both good and bad news for certain bloggers.

> How Knol could be good for bloggers:

- Bloggers could establish credibility and quality on Knol;

- Knol could attract more traffic and readership if it establishes a heavy presence on the web;

- Knol could trump Wikipedia, since the AdSense model could fine-tune how quality content is searched and found (this is an ethical issue Google will likely encounter)

- Bloggers could publish their longer posts as articles on Knol

- Bloggers could use Knol to build quality content with “for more info see MyBlog” links

> How Knol could hurt bloggers:

- Knol seems like an easy substitute for blogging, especially for publishers who don’t blog;

- If Knol succeeds in being recognized for premier content, some bloggers will have a bigger challenge establishing credibility and some could be squeezed out;

- Knol might attract non-bloggers who are enticed to share AdSense revenues;

It’s hard to say for sure. My feeling (completely gut here) is that Knol could be huge. If Google is ethically clean, establishes filters for quality content and attracts authoritative authors, Knol could really become one of the biggest repositories of content on the web.

By: GettyCash

GettyCash — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 01:49:50 +0000

I like the concept they reveal a person who wrote those articles.

By: Debi Zylbermann

Debi Zylbermann — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 22:55:45 +0000

As a relatively new blogger, having a hard enough time with my own blog, my main problem with Knol is where should I be putting my longer article-like posts. On my blog? Or on Knol?
In the meantime, searching for things on Knol isn’t particularly good, whereas Google rankings seem to be amazing already, just after a short while.
See my latest post at http://debizblog.wordpress.com/2008/07/24/how-much-do-you-knol/ for my first take on Knol.

By: LR

LR — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 20:44:43 +0000

it’s – the contraction for it is

its (its) is the form you want when you speak of something like “its partners”

By: Eoghann Irving

Eoghann Irving — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 18:39:29 +0000

I think there may be a possibility to use this alongside our blogs. If you can build up a definitive article on a subject related to your blog, then there is a possibility for both cross linking and building up your brand.

So I don’t see it as an either/or proposition. But as always people who don’t adjust their strategies as the web evolves will suffer.

By: gatt

gatt — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 17:15:56 +0000

I don’t think it will be right to call Google a Content Creator. They are platform provider and they are already doing it with Blogger.

By: Rob | Network in Vegas

Rob | Network in Vegas — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 17:10:54 +0000

I bet you that these pages will automatically rank higher and will have a higher authority in googles eyes than regular web pages. It will also will only be a matter of time before this they start outranking wikipedia pages.

It kinda feels like they are stabbing all the loyal adsense users right in the back.

I also have a huge problem with one company having so much control of the internet. They have way to much information in their databases and I can’t believe so many people trust a company to have so much power.

Whats next?

They already have digitized the library, mapped the world including your front yard, they are trying to take control of peoples medical records, they control what people find online when searching, they took over you tube, and now this.

Seems a little bit scary to me.